You are much more likely to achieve a goal when you have an accountability partner. In fact, according to a study on accountability done by the Association for Talent Development, choosing a goal — as well as committing and deciding when and how to accomplish it — only leads to a 50% likelihood of goal completion. Having a specific accountability appointment with someone you’ve committed to increases the likelihood of completing the goal to 95%.
In planning for your financial future, having an accountability partner whom you meet with regularly improves your chances of hitting goals like retiring by a certain age, purchasing a home, starting a business, saving for college, and many more. Here is how to choose someone to help you hit your financial goals.
Enlisting Accountability Partners
Before you enlist an accountability partner, you’ve got to do a little work on your own. Choosing your specific goals, committing to yourself, deciding when you’d like to achieve them, and planning how to achieve them are all pre-work. Once you do these tasks, you’ll want to find a person whom you can schedule specific accountability meetings with on a regular basis (at least once per year, depending on the goal).
Accountability partners can come in all shapes and sizes. They can be just there to listen to you or there to both hold you accountable and give advice. They can be personal contacts, like friends and mentors. They can also include professionals, like qualified financial professionals, lawyers, and coaches.
Many people have mentors and individuals whom they trust in their lives. The same people who help you successfully navigate career and personal decisions may not be the biggest assets when it comes to financial advice.
A client told me a story about how he received an inheritance and wanted to use that money to fund a home purchase two years later. His personal mentor recommended that instead of investing in a stable option that would provide modest growth over the two years, he should gamble on a speculative stock that the mentor thought was sure to go up. The investor followed the advice and experienced severe losses shortly after executing the decision. The advice by the mentor was not malicious, just misinformed.
Here are some things to look out for in choosing your own financial accountability partner.
Personality
In seeking an accountability partner, you will want to find someone who can listen to your goals and experience without passing judgment, while only offering solutions if you specifically ask. If someone isn’t going to listen to you or is going to make something about themselves, this person may not be the best fit for helping keep you on track for your financial goals.
Relationship
Your relationship with your accountability partner also impacts the quality of this person’s ability to support you in reaching your financial goals. If you have a therapist, that type of professional probably can give you a better objective perspective on a conflict with a friend than if you asked a different friend. Additionally, if your relationship does not allow for you to feel comfortable taking this person’s advice, it may be time to seek out another accountability partner.
I know some extremely well-qualified financial professionals who will not work with their own family members because of the relationship dynamics. I once had a financial professional ask me to take over his family’s investments because they refused to listen to him and thought they knew better than his recommendations. Since working with them, I’ve had an incredibly smooth relationship and we communicate well even though the overall investing strategy has remained consistent.
Education
If you want accountability and you are going to take advice from this accountability partner, the person needs to be able to give educated advice. While it is possible for someone to learn about concepts on social media, through videos, and through internet research, these sources may not always yield reliable results. If someone studied economics, investing, taxation, or finance at their university, they may have a base of knowledge to draw on when discussing your goals with you.
If you’re seeking a professional as an accountability partner, ensuring the person has proper investment licenses and relevant credentials can provide evidence of a sufficient knowledge base.
Experience
If your potential accountability partner has limited investment experience, take that person’s advice with a grain of salt. Someone who has a lot of experience relevant to your specific goals could be able to provide valuable insights. Experience with personal investing can be a tricky thing to measure with loved ones because of inherent cognitive errors many investors make, including the tendency to attribute investment successes to personal prowess and failures to external factors.
Investing experience among professionals can be a little easier to measure because you can look to total years of experience, licensing levels, the number of firms they’ve worked with, and if they have any client complaints through public sources.
Conclusion
You are much more likely to achieve your goals with the support of an accountability partner. When searching, you should seek someone who is a great listener, nonjudgmental, can put you first, and has relevant education and experience. If you do not have someone like that in your personal life, it may be time to seek out a qualified financial professional.
This informational and educational article does not offer or constitute, and should not be relied upon as, tax or financial advice. Your unique needs, goals and circumstances require the individualized attention of your own tax and financial professionals whose advice and services will prevail over any information provided in this article. Equitable Advisors, LLC and its associates and affiliates do not provide tax or legal advice or car purchasing services. Equitable Advisors, LLC (Equitable Financial Advisors in MI and TN) and its affiliates do not endorse, approve or make any representations as to the accuracy, completeness or appropriateness of any part of any content linked to from this article.
Cicely Jones (CA Insurance Lic. #: 0K81625) offers securities through Equitable Advisors, LLC (NY, NY 212-314-4600), member FINRA, SIPC (Equitable Financial Advisors in MI & TN) and offers annuity and insurance products through Equitable Network, LLC, which conducts business in California as Equitable Network Insurance Agency of California, LLC). Financial Professionals may transact business and/or respond to inquiries only in state(s) in which they are properly qualified. Any compensation that Ms. Jones may receive for the publication of this article is earned separate from, and entirely outside of her capacities with, Equitable Advisors, LLC and Equitable Network, LLC (Equitable Network Insurance Agency of California, LLC). AGE-6607638.1 (5/24)(Exp. 5/26)
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